ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA – Vladmir Putin launched his world tour – as a singer – last night!

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA – Vladmir Putin launched his world tour – as a singer – last night!

Vladimir Putin has now done something no other Russian leader is known to have done, at least in public: sing! He launched his world tour as an artist by singing an American pop classic: “Blueberry Hill.”

Fans packed into the concert hall to hear the 58-year-old Russian Prime Minister-pilot-hunter-judo black belt embark on yet another career.

“Some people are saying he wants to be the next Frank Sinatra, but Vlad has a unique style that surpasses Frank and will make him much bigger on a global scale,” said Putin’s Chief of Staff, Anna Pfeffer.

Putin took the stage to thunderous applause and then sat down at the piano and played a Rachmaninoff’s Concerto #3, which many considered the finest performance of the difficult piece ever performed. Here he is at the piano:

Putin was humble at first when he told the crowd, “Like an overwhelming majority of people, I can neither sing nor play, but I very much like doing it.” Then he went on to announce that he was launching his Red Scare Tour, his first world tour as a singer/pianist/KGB.

In the clip below Putin stumbled a bit on a Soviet-era patriotic song, “From Where the Motherland Begins” because he was very emotional. Then he got up and sang “Blueberry Hill.”

Some in the audience say that they saw the ghost of Elvis Presley on the side of the stage. Reportedly, Elvis gave Putin a thumbs up sign for his “Blueberry Hill” performance.

The 1940 song (music by Vincent Rose, lyrics by Al Lewis and Larry Stock),was made famous by Elvis Presley and Led Zepplin. Nobody saw Led Zepplin (dead or alive) on the side of the stage, however.

The former KGB head and president learned the song’s lyrics as part of his English language studies and soon after became fluent in English and learned the complete American songbook as well as every rock song recorded by the Beatles.

Spotted in the crowd: Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and Sharon Stone. They were all “blown away” by Putin’s performance. If they weren’t “blown away” however… they may have been blown away.